Seven Dragons of Heaven, Seven Dragons of Earth
by Bakoneko
Summary: Short vignettes about each of the Seals and Harbingers as the manga begins. It begins with Karen, Nataku, and Yuzuriha, which I wrote for an RPG. If people like them, maybe I'll attempt the rest!
1. Would They Pray?

**Disclaimer:** I play with them as if they were my very own, but I still have to give them back at the end of the day. _Ekkusu _and all its characters, locations, et cetera belong to the brilliant ladies of CLAMP, whom I worship and adore, and I hope they will finish the series for us one day.

o-O-o

It's funny, the way people never look up.

Most women would be beyond embarrassed to be out in the middle of a bustling business district at lunchtime wearing nothing but filmy lingerie. But most women would not have been firmly ensconced on top of a telephone pole, well above the heads of the crowd—and Kasumi Karen had noticed long ago the peculiar tendency of human beings to never look up as they went from place to place. She supposed no one would expect to see anything interesting up there—just sky, and the tops of buildings.

And a scantily-clad Soapland girl sitting on a telephone pole as comfortably as if it were a plushy couch in her workplace. Painted lips curved in an amused smile, and on impulse she blew a kiss to the oblivious crowd. She had learned long ago that embarrassment was a self-indulgence she could ill afford.

Karen liked to watch people; she always had. It made a nice change from the carefully-staged intimacy of the boudoir where she spent her days. In there, dim lighting, soft music, and low-voiced conversation were de rigueur, so it was nice to spend her lunch hour out in the sunlight, fresh air and city noise.

And to look down on the people flooding the streets below. Often she would pick one and follow them with her eyes, making a game of trying to figure out where they had come from and where they were going. She would weave entire stories for them in her head, and wonder what they would do if they knew how closely Death was breathing down their necks. Would they leave their jobs? Go home and tell their families they loved them? Would they perhaps be a little kinder to each other, and more careful of the earth, if they really knew what they'd thoughtlessly done to it? Would they try things they'd never taken the time to before, knowing that there might not be a "someday" anymore?

Would they pray?

Closing her fingers around the slender cross that hung around her neck, Karen closed her eyes and prayed for them. God loved His creations, flawed though they may be. If He simply wanted to wipe them from the earth, He could do it; there would be no reason for Dragons of Heaven or Earth at all. No, humanity would suffer, and perhaps rightly so, but humanity would survive and be better for the experience. God wanted humankind to live. That was why He had given her fire, to defend His children against the scourge that was to come.

And her lunch hour was just about up. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she rose gracefully to her feet and leaped the distance to the roof of the Soapland Flower.

_After all, just in case the end of the world_ doesn't _come, a girl's got to pay her bills._


	2. A Qualified Success

Tokyo was a city of many, many secrets. And quite a few of those secrets were buried under the earth, like the Dreamseer Hinoto, where people walked overhead every day and never knew how close they were to something so much bigger than their little everyday lives. And moreover, the Diet Building wasn't the only major building in Tokyo to hold such an extraordinary secret in its depths.

Light, filtered and diffused through thick green liquid, danced on the walls of the room and on the faces of the scientists and engineers who moved around the space. All they were doing now was monitoring; the experiment was complete, a qualified success. They had created human life, a whole new living being, out of bits and pieces of genetic code and a number of drugs (mostly of questionable legality) spawned from Tokyo Pharmaceuticals' own product line. The pet project, they called this lab and its contents, and most of those who were in on it considered it a huge step toward the future.

To one man, it was more than that. The president of the company, an elderly gentleman in a brown kimono, stood off to one side and gazed up at the androgynous figure suspended in the tank.

"Kazuki," he murmured, and for a moment the laughing face of a little girl seemed to superimpose itself over the still countenance he was looking at. The bioroid, though living it may be, and technically human, never laughed. It never even smiled, nor scowled, nor cried. They had created a being that was physically perfect, neither male nor female but entirely human. But genetics, it seemed, could not create a soul. Even after all this time, the grandfather in the old man's heart still felt a twinge of irrepressible hope every time the bioroid opened its eyes, some part of him still hoping to see his lost granddaughter smile at him. But those eyes were always cold, always empty.

Nataku. A god of mythology without a soul. It had seemed an appropriate name, in his bitterness and sorrow. He certainly couldn't call it Kazuki. The bioroid may have been built from her DNA, but there was nothing of his grandchild about this thing. And there was no reason to expect that there ever would be. The experiment was finished.

A qualified success.

A low thrumming sound filled the chamber, sending the technicians scrambling for their instruments. The readings were changing rapidly, but no one seemed to know for sure what was going on. And as they milled about and conferred in low voices, Nataku opened its eyes. Golden and dispassionate, unblinking as the green-tinged chemicals touched them.

Something was stirring. Something was waking. Nataku recognized this feeling like it recognized very few things in the world; like infants recognize their mothers, on a level of pure, undeniable instinct.

It would be soon, the bioroid thought, letting its eyes drift shut again. Soon it would know its purpose; until then, it was content to wait.


	3. I Can't Wait

Elsewhere in that same city on that same night, lamplight defended a small apartment against the encroaching darkness. That same lamplight illuminated a piece of kitty stationary on which a small hand was busily writing.  
_  
_

_...arrived safely in Tokyo! I thought I'd be so tired by the time we got here, but I can't fall asleep—this city is so amazing! I wish I could show you, Obaachan, the apartment is so high up you can see practically the entire city from here! I promise I'll take lots of pictures, and when we come home again I'll tell you all about it! Though you've probably been here lots of times, but still, I can't imagine ever getting tired of it! Soon I'm sure we'll be asked to meet Hinoto-san and the others—until then, Inuki and I are going to see every bit of Tokyo, you can count on it!_

Pausing in her writing, Nekoi Yuzuriha tapped the pen on the surface of the desk. What else should she tell her grandmother? They hadn't had time to see any of the city when they'd arrived; it had been so late that (much to her disappointment) even the ice cream shops had been closed! But even so, she felt like she'd already seen so much...

Yuzuriha pushed back her chair and walked over to the window. Hundreds of thousands of lights spread out in front of her in a glittering carpet, an awe-inspiring sight for one who'd spent her whole life tucked away in the mountains. Not that she didn't love the Mitsumine Temple, but this was an adventure like she'd always wanted to have. Tearing her eyes from the sight, she shared a delighted smile with her companion and best friend.

"Isn't it fantastic, Inuki? Tomorrow we'll get started seeing all of it! And then soon we'll get to meet the other Ten no Ryu!" She crouched down and buried her fingers in thick grey fur. "Just think—Obaachan said they might even be able to see you! Won't it be wonderful to find other people who can see what a wonderful dog you are? I'm sure they'll pet you and love you just like I do."

Still stroking the spirit-dog, she turned her gaze back to the window. From that angle, she could see a different set of tiny, glittering lights. Even dimmed by Tokyo's brilliance, the stars still shone here, and among them she could easily pick out the seven stars of the Big Dipper. The Dragon of Heaven.

"I can't wait to meet them," she whispered, staring up at the stars of her destiny. "The people who are like me..."


End file.
